This section provides background information related to the present disclosure which is not necessarily prior art.
People often disseminate information about themselves to providers in connection with various activities. For example, when a person (e.g., as a patient, etc.) visits a doctor's office (broadly, a provider), the person is typically invited to share contact information with the office, along with appropriate health information. Likewise, when the person (e.g., as a consumer, etc.) orders a product from a merchant (broadly, a provider), the merchant may collect certain information from the person to help ensure the product is properly delivered to the person and to allow the merchant to respond to any inquiries from the person. In both cases, at least some of the information gathered from the person by the providers may be the same (e.g., contact information, etc.).
Separately, it is known for providers to store information collected from people (e.g., patients, consumers, etc.) for subsequent use in addressing the people's needs and/or to facilitate additional contact with the people (e.g., reminders of annual check-ups, offers for additional products, etc.). In so doing, the information is generally stored in secure locations, and may further be shared with different partners of the providers for various purposes (e.g., upon appropriate disclosure to the people whose information is being shared, upon receiving appropriate permissions from such people, etc.).
Corresponding reference numerals indicate corresponding parts throughout the several views of the drawings.